Link Building: Mistakes Bloggers Should Avoid

Whenever you’re building a website, or just trying to market yourself, it’s important to consider the content of everything you’re posting. There is a big margin for error when it comes to SEO. Obviously, you want your website/brand to appear at every given platform. Whether that is on lists, or in search results. Of course, you also want to be one of the first results listed on any search. Or at least one of the top ten. Everyone does. If you’re not appearing as such, it sounds like you may need to consider the top SEO errors. It seems one of the biggest mistakes involves “link building”.

Link building in SEO, if you don’t already know, is the process of getting other sites on the internet to show a link back to your page. It seems fairly easy, but, it can be tricky! Especially when it comes to backlinks (links leading another site to yours). So, today we will are not going to discuss any link building tutorial and techniques, but we are going to do one better. We will talk about the common link building errors that bloggers make, and how to avoid them.

Link building mistakes to avoid

1) No-follow Links: Do you need them?

See, there are some backlinks you’ll have on your site that have a no-follow attribute. This tells search engines, basically, not to follow the link. If the link is being ignored, there’s really no point to having it on your site, right? It’s important to optimize your exposure. So be careful to watch for these. It’s said this error seems common among shifty webmasters while doing a link exchange, but it can happen simply by overlooking details. You also want to make sure that you’re not placing a backlink from a web page that has multiple links on it. This can cause the search to be overwhelmed, in a sense, and overlook important details.

2) Relevant links are the real deal

While still on the subject of backlinks, you don’t want to collect it from sites that have limited relevance. Make sure you’re linking with sites that have common traits to your own. For an example, don’t backlink to a tanning salon if you’re running a website for running shoes. But if you’re running a modeling agency, then a tanning salon is a great backlink. For this, I’d just suggest make correlations for yourself. Think from your audience’s point of view. You’re going to look like you’re “grasping for strings” if you’re just listing anything.

There are millions of sites for every subject out there. You can find a handful of backlinks relevant to your needs! A suggestion I’ve seen floating around for this is to just build a site you’re passionate about, and pretend you’re not familiar with SEO at all. It’s a slow start to increasing your traffic though, so, I think it’s situation to situation. But, avoid spam links. These won’t do you any good. It also won’t do you any good if the websites you are choosing to have backlinks for lack credibility. You don’t want to link to spam sites that people may be wary of. Always keep in mind the reputation of the sites you’re back linking.

3) Hold on to your Anchor!

Another common mistake is in anchor text. This is a pretty simple error to fix. Make sure you’re always using the best keywords here. Keywords are the most vital to getting your business/brand recognized. Consider this: a back link with text that says “click here” isn’t sure to grab a captive audience, right? Catchy words are always good, but the more simple the words, the better. You also don’t want to over use the same phrases and words. Obviously, unique content is preferred. Even just by choosing a different way to word the same thing, you can reach a broader audience. Just keep in mind, variety is the spice of life!

You can always choose to use an image in place of anchor text on your backlinks too. It’s more colorful, but a little less professional. It’s advised to stick to the use of keywords. But, on the subject of images, if you’re limited to using image links (or still choose to, for whatever reason), make sure to use ALT text to describe your keywords. This is another mistake that people make, and almost always don’t even realize. Text links are always higher recommended, but, sometimes you just can’t manage to get around the images. ALT text is a great way to be able to share both images, and keywords. In my opinion, at least, it’s like the best of both worlds. Of course, you don’t want a bunch of pictures crowded up valuable space, either.

4) Spiders are good

Also, don’t be afraid of spiders! I’m being silly, but it’s legitimate as well. Some links can meet all the above criteria, but still be no good. Why is this? Because the sites you’re linking to may not be linking back to you. If they aren’t, there’s a chance the links won’t be included in other places. There is a software called the Spider Simulator that will help you out with this.

So when it comes to link building, the best thing you can do is chill. Create quality, not quantity. Use relevant keywords, and backlinks. Make your page different, but, not in a “look at me” sort of way. Hope you enjoyed reading the post. Do let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

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About Arpit Roy

Arpit is a die hard Chelsea F.C. fan - a true blue through and through. He is a Solutions Architect by profession and loves to blog about technology, SEO and how-to guides in order to help others. He likes playing competitive football and FIFA in his free time.